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Getting a head start on celebrating the 30th Anniversary of the Final Fantasy Franchise next year, Square Enix has opened a site dedicated to it at http://www.finalfantasy.jp/30th/. Unfortunately, the site is entirely in Japanese, so unless you plan on brushing up on your Nihongo, then the most you'll get out of it is watching the promo video and listening to the sweet tunes that play in the background. There's no word yet (in English anyway) on what they plan on doing to celebrate the big 3-0, or if they plan on celebrating it world wide (they may wait for the western release anniversary to do that, however, that won't be until 2020).
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Manabu Daishima, 45, a graphic designer for Square Enix passed away on August 8, 2016 while diving off the coast of the Shizuoku Prefecture on the southwest coast of Japan. He did work on such titles as monster designs for Romancing SaGa, field graphics for Chrono Trigger, battle effect graphics for Parasite Eve, 3D map and background design for Final Fantasy XII and Dirge of Cerebus: Final Fantasy VII, and world graphic design for Secret of Mana.
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Somewhat getting lost in all the brouhaha over Final Fantasy XV, at 10AM EDT today (March 31st) Square Enix closed it's servers for Final Fantasy XI on both the Playstation 2 and the XBox 360. Final Fantasy XI was released on May 16, 2002 on both systems and Windows PCs. But fret not, console gamers, you can transfer your PlayOnline IDs to Square Enix Accounts then download the game on your PC for free. Here is the link with information on how to do so: http://www.playonline.com/ff11us/envi/win/winshift.html
This in turn also signifies the end of the Playstation 2 era, which began in 2000. The Sony system is the highest selling console of all time, with over 155 million units sold. A slew of well-loved Square Enix games were released on the system, including Dragon Quest VIII, mainline Final Fantasy titles from X and XII, as well as spin-off Final Fantasy X-2 and the afformentioned Final Fantasy XI, Square Enix's first MMORPG.
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Square Enix announced a new project from their Business Division 5 unit, which is known for such games as Final Fantasy XI, Final Fantasy XIV, and Dragon Quest Builders. As of this time, the only information is this banner, which simply announces that something is coming soon. The image is borrowed from promotional art for Final Fantasy XIV, so could this new project have a connection? Is it possible that they'll give us a single player JRPG based in the Final Fantasy XIV world?
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Most of you know that Final Fantasy XIV wasn't Square Enix's first MMO. Final Fantasy XI was its predecessor. Most don't know that it is still active and kicking! Even though Final Fantasy: XIV Heavensward is coming out, they haven't forgotten about their most successful Final Fantasy. Square Enix released a new video today showcasing the new May update for Final Fantasy XI.
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Final Fantasy has a long and storied history, and if you're on this site, then chances are you know a lot of this history already. But do you know everything? Here are a handful of lesser known facts from Square's perennially popular series:
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Dogs are usually considered "Man's Best Friend". However, that's not always the case. As the species have evolved over these thousands of years, so has the relationship between canines and humans. The Final Fantasy series is no stranger
to this concept.

Cynophobia is the psychological fear of dogs and it is brought on by either being victim to, or witnessing a bad experience with a canine early in life. Sometimes cynophobia may be taught, through a cynophobic parent or culture. Evolutionary theorists, though, claim that the fear of dogs may be hard wired into our systems, as early man needed fear to survive against large predators.

One of these large predators may have been the Grey Wolf, for which is theorized to be the ancestor to all domestic dogs this day. Wolves have been a popular enemy in the Final Fantasy series, dating to the original. Not only did you face common Wolves, but also supernatural versions like the Warg Wolves, Werewolves and Winter Wolves. Hyenadons, based on a prehistoric canine and Hell Hounds are two large canine foes encountered on the heroes' journey.

With her serpentine hair and her deadly gaze, the Medusa has become a legend and a symbol for many generations. Born from Ancient Greek Mythology, the Medusa has been represented in art, literature, on stage and screen. She has made notable appearances in many of the most popular video game series, including Final Fantasy, Castlevania and as a hero in DotA2. Her story is both tragic and empowering.

Medusa was one of the three Gorgons, three of the daughters of the primordial sea god Phorcys and his sister/wife Ceto (oh, those ancients and their incest!). The early Greeks portrayed her and her sisters Stheno and Euryale of being monsters born with snakes for hair, grotesque features and wings of gold. To look upon them would turn one into stone. Of the three, only Medusa was mortal.

The classical Roman poet Ovid was portrayed her as an astounding beauty in Temple of Athena. She attracted the attention of the sea god Poseidon, who taking after the tradition began by he and his brother Zeus, raped Medusa. Athena, beginning the tradition of blaming the victim, transformed Medusa into a hideous monster, with snakes for hair, bronze claws and enraged eyes that could
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With their cephalopodic heads and their brooding demeanor, the Mindflayer family is one of the darkest, most viscious group of fiends in the Final Fantasy series. The history of these abominations is fascinating. From their god-like beginnings in the Cthulhu Mythos they've become a staple in not only Final Fantasy, but in our pop culture.

Probably the most notorious of these beings came from the mind of horror writer H.P. Lovecraft, the Cthulu. One of many Great Old Ones, the Cthulhu has a humanoid body, draconian wings and a Giant Octopus-like head. Cthulhu has become a regular reference in pop culture, including a couple of appearances in South Park. It has also inspired many other creations, including Davy Jones in the Pirates of the Caribbean series, Zoidberg of Futurama and the Illithids of Dungeons & Dragons.

The Illithids were created by Gary Gygax for Dungeons & Dragons. After seeing the paperback cover of Brian Lumley's Chtulhu Mythos novel, "The Burrowers Beneath", he created a race of demons with similar features and dark personalities.There are a wide variety of Illiads and are most commonly called Mind Flayers. They use their tentacle covered mouths to devour
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Hey weary adventurer. Have you been lost on your travels? Do you feel like something is missing? Would you like to return home? Well, friend, Square Enix would love to welcome you back home to Vana'diel to celebrate the 11th Vana'versary of FINAL FANTASY XI!
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Recently at Roppongi Nico Fare event, Granblue Fantasy was announced. Inside Games had the scoop on this event where Nobuo Uematsu, Hideo Minaba and many voice actors appeared. According to Cygames director Yuita Kimura stated that the project started when he approached Minaba about creating a new RPG. He felt that if he were to make a game with him, naturally Uematsu would need to be asked as well. So it began! The two Final Fantasy heavy hitters were once again back in action.
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There is now a very strange and interesting rumour flying around after a tweet was made from the official 'Final Fantasy XI' twitter yesterday.... "The heck is this... Is something starting up...?!"
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To celebrate the upcoming release of Final Fantasy XI's 5th expansion, "Seekers of Adoulin," Square Enix has announced they'll be holding their very first Double EXP Weekend.

Running from Friday, February 8th, 3:00pm (GMT) to Monday, February 11th, 2:59am (GMT) the event will allow double the experience gain from slaying monsters in all areas of Vana'diel. This doesn't include Abyssea areas.

There's even more! The experience gain from the Dedication effect granted rom XP bonus equipment will also be doubled! However the experience earned by completing other types of content or through the use of certain items won't be doubled.

This is the perfect opportunity to sharpen your skills, hone your magic and grow ever stronger in preperation for the new dangers that you'll be facing in the untamed lands of Ulbuka.

If you didn't know, Sony has stopped production on PS2's recently. No more will be made. It's generation is officially over. Square Enix isn't quite done with it yet! Final Fantasy XI: Seekers of Adoulin is one last expansion to the MMO for the ps2. This week cover art was released for it. This will most likely be the last new cover art you will ever see for the System.

The Xbox 360 version looks near identical to this one. If you live in the west then unfortunately you wont be able to get the PS2 version as only the PC and 360 version will be available outside of Japan.

Not only that but some screens and trailer were recently released for the Expansion.

Seekers of Adoulin will have two new classes, the Geomancer and the Rune Fencer, as well as the new city, Adoulin. While you wait for XIV to come back out with Realm Reborn, jump back onto XI and join in on the expansion goodies! Expect it out on March 26th 2013!

Amid rumors that layoffs had occurred at Square-Enix’s Los Angeles office and how they might impact current MMO games, SE’s Senior Director of Public Relations, Riley Brennan, confirmed yesterday that layoffs did occur, but that customers will not see any negative impact. Brennan emphasized that the decision to lay off some unknown number of employees “will not have any impact on the operations of MMO titles,” and that the upcoming launch of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will not be affected. It’s currently unknown what specific departments lost employees, but Brennan’s assurances seemed to apply only to the MMO departments.

The layoffs seem to corroborate last week’s report about the disastrous original launch of Final Fantasy XIV and its continued financial impact on Square-Enix. Hopefully the upcoming relaunch of Final Fantasy XIV: A Realm Reborn will allow the company to bounce back so that this trend does not continue.